You arrive at a gas station and all pumps are occupied by cars. Nearly half of them have a car by them but are not pumping gas. You wait until one opens. In the time you waited for a free pump, pumped your gas (paying at the pump), and finish up, several of the cars are STILL sitting there having not pumped any gas.
In this day and age, are there really that many people that have to pre-pay?
People pump their gas and then go inside to shop for stuff without moving away from the pump.
Or, if they’re paying with cash, and the station requires you to pay before you pump, they pull in, go into the station, and are shopping for snacks before paying (or standing in line, waiting to pay).
At the local convenience store W.A.G.S. in Vermont there is a very specific instruction at the pump to pump your gas and then move to a regular parking spot to pay since there are only two pumps and there is no pay at the pump.
There are a lot of people that aren’t buying fuel but simply park at a pump. They go in for coffee or lottery tickets or lunch or whatever. No, they don’t care about your wait.
Also, an employee might park at a pump to deter crime. A holdup is less likely if the robber thinks there are customers inside.
At our local mini-mart/gas station, the regular parking spots are often full, so there is no point in even trying to move your car from the pump while you go inside to pay or shop.
Assholes. Plain and simple.
If you’d just switch to an all electric vehicle this wouldn’t even be a thing for you.
Sorry, channeling my self-righteous son there for a second. But seriously, I’ve never noticed the OP situation. Probably just means I’m unobservant and will be easily mugged one day. Hell, it may have already happened but I was too clueless to notice.
I haven’t run into a station that lets you pump then pay in years. But the point stands, if the pumps are crowded I’ll swipe, pump, then pull to a regular space to make any additional purchase. If I’m the only vehicle out there though, I’ll park at the pump, go in and get and pay for my stuff, then swipe, pump and leave.
People often park and then go in and buy other things, and if they have a couple of young children who need to go potty, that can take a while.
So many stations are finding card skimmers attached these days. I know lots off people who only pay inside. The lines can be long.
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I see it all the time. No one in the car for the entire time I pump. Still there when I leave. I vote assholes with no self-awareness. “I got mine” types with no empathy. If you explained exactly to them why what they are doing is bothersome, they wouldn’t get it.
Well most of the gas stations I go to the cashiers and or the customers are incompetent buffoons so the line inside can get really backed up with a long wait, you know granny needs her cigarettes and scratch-offs, and the card reader is down.
Seriously though I usually buy a drink or something before or after I get gas, does anyone really pump gas, and then move their car to a parking space and then go inside and buy whatever they need?
I do, occasionally. Only when I know that I need gas and cannot wait, and also want something inside.
I never get my gas and then go in and get something inside and leave my car in the spot, even if there isn’t anyone else there, because I’m in the habit of parking afterward.
But more often than getting gas and then parking elsewhere, I park elsewhere and then get gas, because I most often do the combo shopping when I am on vacation, and I want to also combine the stop with a bathroom break, and if there aren’t any restrooms or if they are broken, I’m not going to get gas or anything else at that establishment.
When I am at home, I get gas or get a quick snack but rarely combine the two.
This is odd, I don’t think I have seen this behavior ever here in New Jersey…finally something that this fine state does well.
(though I would gladly put up with it if I were allowed to pump my own gas and get on my way)
Elsewhere, I have seen this going on, and agree that it is a combination of pay-inside folks along with the occasional rude individual. It only takes a few to make it seem like everyone is doing this.
It’s like that lady who comes by my house to pick up or drop off kids for music lessons, and she parallel parks her car in the street at the base of my driveway, completely blocking the driveway. No one can get out or out while she is there. This is usually right at the time I’m coming home, so I end up parking in the street.
Some people are like that.
The maximum assholes leave their car running for bonus points. “What? It’s a company car, I don’t have to pay for it!?”
Yes. Every single time. Most of the gas stations I use are heavily trafficked with lines at the pumps and it would be incredibly rude not to move your car before you go inside to shop.
Although I usually do it the other way, I’ll park at the mini-mart and get my snacks or whatever, then I’ll pull up to the pumps and gas up on the way out.
I rarely buy anything at a gas station other than gas, but when I pump gas and need to use the rest room, I can’t remember ever moving my car from the pump first. Same w/ the rare occasions that the pump won’t print a receipt. Of course, I can’t recall ever being at a gas station that is so crowded that there isn’t a free pump elsewhere.
Unless I am travelling, I make a point of getting my gas at times that the stations won’t be crowded - i.e., generally early in the a.m., avoiding Friday…
Seemingly far more problematic are the people who fail to pull through to the furthest pump. But I imagine that with people entering the station from different directions, and gas-tank spouts on different sides of the cars, this probably is not really an issue.
(And there’s often a line)
(And they often charge more if you use a credit card, which motivates some annoyed people to pay in cash)
you push Y
(= They are lazy about replacing the receipt printer-tape in the gas pump)